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Those who exert more patience and are willing to wait for larger financial payouts down the line have credit scores an average of 30 points higher than those who are less patient, according to a study to be published in the Journal of Psychological Science next month.

Impatient consumers want to feel the immediate benefit of cash in the bank, which outweighs the benefit of not paying interest or late fees.

Meier and Sprenger based their findings on a survey of 437 people they asked a variety of questions, noting how much money it took before the respondents' impatience kicked in and they opted for a smaller amount of money faster. The study was controlled for income, total debt, and demographic differences.

“The most extreme choice was $22 now or $50 in a month,” Meier says. “There was a surprising amount of people taking the $22.”

One of the other striking finds of their paper, "Time Discounting Predicts Creditworthiness," was how those who proved to be least patient scored an average credit score below 620, the number that usually distinguishes between prime and "subprime" borrowers. ("Subprime" borrowers will pay higher interest rates on things like mortgages and other loans.)